Lion of st. mark

Location: Top of stained glass in back of altar, next to Lamb of God

The winged lion is the traditional symbol of St. Mark the Evangelist based on the description of the four living creatures in Revelation 4:7, and the creatures described by Ezekiel in his vision recounted in Ezekiel ch. 1. As Mark’s remains are buried at the Basilica San Marco in Venice following their removal from Alexandria in 828, the lion of St. Mark is the symbol of the city of Venice and the Italian region of Veneto.

While generally St. Mark the Evangelist and John Mark the cousin of Barnabas (Colossians 4:10) and his companion on missionary journeys (Acts 12:25 et al) are thought to be the same person, some scholarly opinion holds these are three separate individuals. Nonetheless, the Mark associated with the lion was the founder of the church in Alexandria and the first bishop there, and the Coptic and Greek churches in Alexandria trace their lineage to Mark.

One reason for the association of the Lion with Mark is the tradition that Mark was imprisoned by Rome and thrown to the lions, who did not molest him, and in fact numerous paintings and Orthodox icons of Mark show him with docile lions, sometimes petting them. Another justification for the lion is that Mark’s Gospel begins quoting Isaiah 40:3, “...the voice of one crying in the wilderness...”, the voice Mark identifies with John the Baptist was said to roar like a lion. Mark (rather than John) became associated with the roaring lion.